Wild West Coast Wedding Portraits in Nanoose Bay, A Creative Collaboration
The west coast provides the most stunning backdrops for weddings of any kind, but Vancouver Island is known for the rugged, unique coastline views and hidden gem locations full of amazing sculptural rocks, trees and wild natural beauty.
On this wintery March day, with wild weather including rain, a hint of leftover snow, and a lot of wind, our two brave models pulled out all the stops to embrace our photo session out in the elements.
This bridal styled portrait session in Nanoose Bay features a collaboration of several amazingly talented Vancouver Island wedding vendors for hair and make up, florals, and of course, myself for Photography and location scouting.
Sheri planned and organized all of the details and vendors for this session, including our getting ready location and providing her own wedding dress for our photo session. When I connected with her to be a part of this collaboration, she had so many great ideas. Her overall sentiment was “I just love sharing ideas with other creative people! Organizing this with everyone was so much fun!”
As someone in a creative & entrepreneur business, I work alone, as do most of my colleagues. Having the opportunity to plan to come together for a session like this, just to be creative and share time together, it’s like having a party with your new favourite coworkers. It’s great energy, we had so much fun and lots of social time in addition to pouring our creative minds into all the details that came together for this session.
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Collaborative Contributors
Make-Up, Lashes and session planning & vendor coordination by VanIsle Makeup Artist Sheri @mua.sheri
Flowers by Petal & Kettle Florist and Boutique Parksville @petalkettle
Bridal Model Mariah @riyazilla
Bridesmaid Model Jen @yourmanegirljen
Photography by me @AlannaDportraits at VancouverIslandPhotography.com
Check our our Behind the Scenes REELS here and here from our session too
The Location
Nanoose Bay on central Vancouver Island is a hidden gem for weddings and portraits and the area offers a variety of wedding venues. From water view vacation resorts such as Tigh-na-Mara or the Beach Club, to the farm views at Rusted Rake Brewery, as well as the Fairwinds Golf Course and Nanoose Bay Community Hall, to fully custom weddings among the forest backdrop at the edge of Rathtrevor Provincial Park, there are so many locations to pick from within the Parksville and Nanoose Bay area for your wedding.
What makes Nanoose Bay even more special, is the hidden gem beaches that are just a short drive from any one of these Parksville wedding venues. So you and your partner can sneak away for sunset portraits during the reception, or bring your entire bridal party to one of the cliffside ocean viewpoints and have your portraits among some of the most beautiful landscapes the island has to offer.
If you want to plan a surprise proposal, you can hit up Petal & Kettle for stunning floral options, grab some bubbly to celebrate, and give me a call to help you set it all up in this, or another secret and romantic destination in the area.
The beach we selected for this session is remote, relatively unknown, and only useable at low tide. It’s also very pretty, very slippery, and one of the most unique rocky landscapes in the area, so the photo possibilities are endless.
If you are a nature lover, this destination is also ideal for wildlife viewing and catching sunset. We were also serenaded by a very loud group of sealions and a pair of eagles for most of our session.
It’s truly a wild and natural hidden gem.
And to keep it wild and peaceful, this particular spot is not one that I will name directly. But feel free to spend a day in Nanoose Bay checking out dead end roads and see what kind of amazing beach access points you can find too. That’s how I have found many of my favourite spots.
The Look - Bride’s Style
Mariah had a soft glam pallette and bold lip for her make up styling, paired with her luxe hairstyle of timeless vintage waves
The Look - Bridesmaids Style
Jen had a bold bronzed eye and bronzed skin to pair with her evening gown style black dress. Her hairstyle is a wrap around mid bun with face framing that is very trendy for this season.
The Finishing Touch
We were so grateful for Petal & Kettle Flowers & Boutique Parksville for providing these gorgeous bouquets for the perfect pop of color against the wild west coast landscape we were working with. The purple hues just shone against the colors of the rocks and the ocean for an ideal accent to these photos.
The Wild West Coast Look
All of these creative talents came together to get to this final scene out along the ocean. We wanted wild west coast with the essence of an Elopment or Tofino Wedding but contained within a unique location near Parksville. You don’t need to travel far for amazing ocean views and photo destinations on Vancouver Island.
From the ocean to the trees, here are our final faves and a few more images from behind the scenes.
This creative session was meant to capture the west coast essence, a timeless bridal portrait style, and to be a lot of fun. Working together on a project like this is about getting your creative energy and inspiration out there, without the pressure of tight deadline in the moment.
We still had the reality of weather issues to deal with when the time came for the portraits, but the behind the scenes was just as important in the creative side of this session too.
Above all, these stunning models had patience with all of our creative energy, they braved the CRAZY windy March weather at the beach and posed elegantly and shared a lot of fun with all of us.
No matter what kind of session I am working on, creating images with fun energy and naturally beautiful moments are all part of what I do for my clients, so they can see their story and their memories in ways that are timeless, and in some cases, unexpected.
